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I have viewed a lot of advice comments and things people say to new DMs.
Things that range from, "My player thinks I role played this wrong, was he right or am I?", to "Did I use this rule right?".
CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE.
I have been DMing for many years now, I make rule mistakes ALL the time. If I make an obvious mistake my players point it out, I go oops and deal with it. The key is make them think you know what your talking about and they will not question you. If you changed a rule or made a slight alteration out of either a mistake or not, who cares your the DM.
The rules are not set in stone for the DM. They are guide lines to help you make a fair and fun game.
Fair is easy. As long as your players are having fun, the rules don't matter.
As DM you are a leader, and confidence is what makes the players follow.
Hellas.
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NO just NO.
Again NO.
The rules apply as much to the GM as to the players, you want to change them? sure go ahead and do it but do so before a campaign starts (and of course let your players know about your house rules) and if you have to change a rule during the course of a campaign then allow the players affected by the change to rebuilt their character.
I think he's meaning slight slips in portions of a rule here, not full-game sweeping house rules that affect character builds.
Preach it! :)
Can you give me an example?
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As in most things, confidence in your abilities tends to help you perform better.
With one caveat. That caveat is that you are competent in the endeavor to begin with. Confidence alone will not help you, but if you know what you are doing, confidence can keep you from second-guessing yourself which keeps the game moving smoothly and consistently.
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Can you give me an example?I think he's meaning slight slips in portions of a rule here, not full-game sweeping house rules that affect character builds.
Preach it! :)
Oh, I forgot that bad guy gets +5 to maintain a grapple...
Soft cover gives -2 to hit...Oh, wait, forgot that was difficult terrain you just charged through..
All three of these are worthy of a shrug, an "oh well, we'll know that for next time", and move on. If you're confident on your numbers, the players may not even notice these little slip-ups. This becomes even more true as levels get higher and little bonuses make less and less difference. (IMHO)
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Confidence doesn't mean much if you're wrong though. A rules lawyer is gonna know either way.
Oh, and rules matter for everyone at the table. Not just when it's convenient for the GM.
NO just NO.
Again NO.
The Most Important Rule
The rules in this book are here to help you breathe life into
your characters and the world they explore. While they are
designed to make your game easy and exciting, you might
find that some of them do not suit the style of play that your
gaming group enjoys. Remember that these rules are yours.
You can change them to fit your needs.
Mmmm, yes, evidently the great lord leo1925 knows it better than Paizo, Mmmm.
All silliness aside, you should come up with all houserules ahead of time, and, furthermore, ensure that ALL HOUSERULES ARE ABOVE THE TABLE.
Everyone should know them.
Remember not to confuse arrogance with confidence. For that way lies the dark side!
Can you give me an example?I think he's meaning slight slips in portions of a rule here, not full-game sweeping house rules that affect character builds.
Preach it! :)
Oh, I forgot that bad guy gets +5 to maintain a grapple...
Soft cover gives -2 to hit...
Oh, wait, forgot that was difficult terrain you just charged through..
All three of these are worthy of a shrug, an "oh well, we'll know that for next time", and move on. If you're confident on your numbers, the players may not even notice these little slip-ups. This becomes even more true as levels get higher and little bonuses make less and less difference. (IMHO)
Other than the soft cover thing (which can't be more wrong) i can understand the others, i still disagree but i can understand why new GMs might need it and have no problem with that*.
*that means i would have no problem when a new DM used tricks like that a few times to help him keep the game going.
@Taku Ooka Nin
Are you joking with the first sentence of your post or are you being sarcastic?
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All silliness aside, you should come up with all houserules ahead of time, and, furthermore, ensure that ALL HOUSERULES ARE ABOVE THE TABLE.
Everyone should know them.
I believe very strongly that treating the alignment system (and definitions) as houserules would greatly diminish the number of alignment threads.
Note that this includes a willingness from the GM to actually gather feedback from the players about his proposed houserules and adapt them as needed so that the game can be smooth and fun for everybody.
@Taku Ooka Nin
Are you joking with the first sentence of your post or are you being sarcastic?
Sarcasticly seriously stating my statement of seriousness!
=P
If you can't be perfect, lie effectively enough that your mistakes go unnoticed, cheat to make things work, and steal success from elsewhere.
My players think I know a lot more about the rules than I actually do, and praise a lot of my game design when really I just tend to find the best ideas in other sources and adjust them to fit my needs.
Rules are nice, but in the end what's important is that the players are having fun. If breaking some rules helps that, then by all means break rules. It's generally a good idea to avoid flaunting this in front of players though, as broken rules when discovered--even if they were moments earlier making the game fun--can turn an atmosphere sour simply because they are broken rules.
Can you give me an example?I think he's meaning slight slips in portions of a rule here, not full-game sweeping house rules that affect character builds.
Preach it! :)
Oh, I forgot that bad guy gets +5 to maintain a grapple...
Soft cover gives -2 to hit...
Oh, wait, forgot that was difficult terrain you just charged through..
All three of these are worthy of a shrug, an "oh well, we'll know that for next time", and move on. If you're confident on your numbers, the players may not even notice these little slip-ups. This becomes even more true as levels get higher and little bonuses make less and less difference. (IMHO)
+5 to maintain a grapple is NOT a small number.
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How about "lack of confidence makes for bad DMing, but confidence alone does not a good DM make"?
Look at the example of American Idol / The Voice / "talent" competition of your choice. There's plenty of people for whom lack of confidence is clearly not the issue...
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As AD says: GMs should know basically what they're doing before they go in. I also agree w/the OP however that sometimes you just need to wing it and fudge through a ruling if they've made a mistake. However a key thing a lot of GMs forget: Adaptability.
It's easy to forget a rule in the heat of battle. You're amped and forget that a ghoul doesn't get a full attack in a charge. That's understandable. But another part of the OP's comments were in response to RP situations or gray area rulings. I-bar at the top is basically saying the GM's word is law so be confident.
Some GMs I've met however feel that they are authors; storytellers. This is not even the case in a "Storyteller" game system game.
One of the things I've seen "confident" GMs do is make rulings and judgments solely to preserve their setting, plot or NPCs. I've been guilty of this many times and I'll probably continue getting it wrong, though I'm trying (which is why I'm a 30+ year vet GM and I'm in a GM's advice thread).
Anyway, GMs with overconfidence or arrogance are so rigidly devoted to their creation that they refuse to bend to the players. Remember: there are often more of them at the table than there are of you. I'm not saying you need to monty haul it for them but ruling in favor of the players once in a while or saying yes to their bizarre plays often makes the difference between a good game and a great one.
Rules are not the be all and end all of the game they are the frame work around which you create your game
The story and the telling of it are the most important part of any game someone can know the rules to the letter it doesn't mean they make a good DM
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+5 to maintain a grapple is NOT a small number.Can you give me an example?I think he's meaning slight slips in portions of a rule here, not full-game sweeping house rules that affect character builds.
Preach it! :)
Oh, I forgot that bad guy gets +5 to maintain a grapple...
Soft cover gives -2 to hit...
Oh, wait, forgot that was difficult terrain you just charged through..
All three of these are worthy of a shrug, an "oh well, we'll know that for next time", and move on. If you're confident on your numbers, the players may not even notice these little slip-ups. This becomes even more true as levels get higher and little bonuses make less and less difference. (IMHO)
(+Leo)
My point is that if your mistake goes unnoticed by your players and has negligible impact on the encounter, one should not break up the flow of the dice just because of a technicality. Yes, +2 for soft cover is wrong, and +5 is a big deal. However, a new GM (like I'm about to be) will make these mistakes, and unless they have a rules lawyer at their table to keep it straight (of which I have at least two), the story and the immersion, and the excitement of the encounter take precedence over inconsequential errors.On the other hand, I will readily advocate Retconing something you forgot that DID matter. Especially in the party's favor. Double especially if it is a last-ditch move.
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My point is that if your mistake goes unnoticed by your players and has negligible impact on the encounter, one should not break up the flow of the dice just because of a technicality. Yes, +2 for soft cover is wrong, and +5 is a big deal. However, a new GM (like I'm about to be) will make these mistakes, and unless they have a rules lawyer at their table to keep it straight (of which I have at least two), the story and the immersion, and the excitement of the encounter take precedence over inconsequential errors.
On the other hand, I will readily advocate Retconing something you forgot that DID matter. Especially in the party's favor. Double especially if it is a last-ditch move.
Indeed sir, but I think you have at least 4 rules lawyers at the table. Josh and I, are I think, a little less vocal than the other two. Just bear in mind that you shouldn't let them drag you down with the rules and beat you over the head with them.
As a GM I cheat all the time. I admit that I sometimes reroll attacks and allow hits to land that don't quite make it. Sometimes I pull hits that should land or have players make an extra save. It's part of the game and it probably balances out at the end of the day. Some people might not like that, but too bad.
Most of my incidents are that player that has 37 AC when the rest of the party is doing good to have 20-23 or that one player that is just destroying everything and making other players look like henchmen.... yeah he just got grappled, his weapon is broken, and his teammates are going to have to rescue him and fix his gear.
Rules lawyers probably wouldn't like my gaming table, but I've had 8-10 players at my table for the last 16 years. I must be doing something right.
In the last 13 games I've ran we've had about 7 character deaths, we are running a deadly adventure and by and large I'm letting the dice fall where they may. I usually just relax on the rules for the non-minmaxed characters. They can take their 20% miss chance for dim lighting conditions.
The rules are not set in stone for the DM. They are guide lines to help you make a fair and fun game.Fair is easy. As long as your players are having fun, the rules don't matter.
Isadork may have emphasized confidence, but I think these two mini-paragraphs are even more important. Rules sometimes need changing to fit the situation - keep their general structure in spirit and things should be alright. And running a game that feels fair in which the players are having fun is the most important goal of playing in the first place.
By feeling fair, rather than just saying fair, I mean that the players feel that their ideas and suggestions are dealt with fairly whether or not they are, in fact, actually balanced and scrupulously fit the rules.
I think there is a distinction between a GM who knowingly fudges a roll or knowingly ignores an obscure rule to make the encounter or story better, and a GM who makes an outright mistake.
If the GM rarely makes a mistake, then an air of calm confidence when someone points out the mistake is better than "oops! I never knew that! I guess we'll have to redo that encounter".
I make mistakes every game I GM. I know I do. I used to include my "GM errors" in my game notes I sent out to my players. My goal in doing so was to acknowledge my errors and give the players a chance to address any issues that might arise from those errors. Eventually my players told me that they really didn't care about the GM mistakes and I quit publishing them. But I'm aware of them, usually.
But I am a highly confident GM usually. On occasion I can get knocked off my game by situations where I feel I didn't prepare properly and I really hate that feeling. Which is why I do try to prepare. I think the game is much smoother and more fun for everyone when the GM is calm, confident and assertive about their rulings.
But if the GM is consistently making bad rulings, eventually even confidence and assertiveness won't bail them out.
Other than "confidence" I think the best quality a GM can have is an awareness that they are always still learning how to GM.
When I'm DMing, I typically have either two responses to minor slip-ups:
"Woops, my bad." or, to borrow a leaf from Noah Antwiler's book, "Yeah, it IS pretty weird that monster could do that, isn't it?"
One glosses over it and lets the players know that, yeah, you're human, you do occasionally make mistakes too, and you'll try to correct it should it come up again.
The other (so long as we're not talking like, the Tarrasque slapping on +10 full plate and wandering around vomiting swarms of +1 dancing vorpal greatswords onto people) can help build suspense, and uncertainty, and reinforce the fact that there ARE still things out there that the players or their characters have yet to see.
Actually, it helps to cover my mistakes that I reskin so many creatures and use so many custom monsters. If I have a custom monster and forget to utilize a feat, who knows? If I use a wrong feat, who knows? I just have to be consistent. I can't tell you the number of times I've made an error, and that error became the new reality. :)
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Actually, it helps to cover my mistakes that I reskin so many creatures and use so many custom monsters. If I have a custom monster and forget to utilize a feat, who knows? If I use a wrong feat, who knows? I just have to be consistent. I can't tell you the number of times I've made an error, and that error became the new reality. :)
I will probably be doing this a lot.
I'm a habitual abuser of monster feats... "yeah they do that".
For instance, Awesome Blow. I believe the feat bull rushes, but I usually have it bull rush in addition to doing damage, because its dramatic to have the fighter get kicked across the room. Honestly I wish more monsters had it.
After all these years dming, my players have killed goblins by the hordes and I like suprising them with new monster abilities. I have found another set of 3pp books that use alot of variant monsters and they keep the players guessing.
I highly recommend custom monster creation for all GMs. It can really add to the "Oh my god! What the heck is THAT?!" experience, and we all know how much fun that is. :)
Some GMs I've met however feel that they are authors; storytellers. This is not even the case in a "Storyteller" game system game.
Wanted to call this out as great advice. Some people should just write a book.
I highly recommend custom monster creation for all GMs. It can really add to the "Oh my god! What the heck is THAT?!" experience, and we all know how much fun that is. :)
I have been in the recieving end of that and i have to say that, most of the times, it's great. It's a shame that now that both i and my group are older we don't have enough time for things like that...sigh...
Fortunately Paizo gives us quite a big number of monsters.
The OP is correct, confidence is very important for GMs.
Not just some, but MOST of the best games I've ever played in involved a GM deciding something was happening and then not bothering to look up how it "should" work.
I'm not saying that this approach can't go terribly wrong, I know it can. I'm saying that it can also go terribly right.
Sometimes the best thing a GM can do is just wing it with the mechanics and tell a good yarn.
There's a balance here between getting the rules right, and keeping the game moving. Given the choice between the two, I ALWAYS want the latter.
Fix rules details between games, not during them. Please.
As long as I know the rules beforehand and don't have to deal with the ref constantly changing them, I'm OK.
When running, I abuse the Rules Lawyer by tapping him (odd, always 'him') for rule interpretations and rulings. I pawn off record keeping, initiative and every other task I can on players. Keeps 'em too busy to spot my screw-ups.
+1 for custom monsters. It is pretty much how I run my games. My players are old and experienced and I like to keep them on their toes.
people need to remember it is not the GM vs. the Players. Everyone at the table needs to be having fun. If everyone is not having fun you are doing something wrong.
It is just not that hard for everyone to be reasonable and polite. Everyone should give it a try.
I've played games where five of the seven people sitting around the table have been rules-lawyers. I've also played games where actual lawyers have played :)
Anyway, I've seen fights over a rule last for over an hour (once two hours..blah). A good game master will squash these scenarios and keep the game moving so everyone wants to play another session. Changing rules on the fly is a great tool for keeping the game going but it's also a weapon to make players feel cheated. I say change a rule on the fly all you want but keep it consistent for the next time the rule is needed.
In my opinion GM confidence doesn't make a good GM unless his/her players think it does. Every group is different and GMs that ask if they were right when resolving an issue shows that they want to be better.